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21 Comments

  1. This is a great article. Thanks for taking the time to write it. This can also be a profitsble side gig for someone. I’d like to explore the option of making the side walls and corner pieces a little higher so these can be stacked without adding weight to the sealed tops on the jars. Again, great stuff!

    1. Good thought provoking article.

      I too make my own wooden boxes for jars, but I use recycled Oak Pallets and many other things would work as well. I disassemble the pallets which isn’t easy with the spiral nails used, but worthwhile at only a cost of time. I plane the slats down to 3/8″ and glue and nail them to 3/4″ end boards of sufficient height that any crate stacked sits on the end boards and not the jars. There are only two sizes of wood needed, the slats for the bottom/sides and those for the ends. I set up the table saw and mass produce the wood pieces. Dimensions are taken by setting a dozen jars as they would sit in the box and measuring plus a tad for slight variance in the jars.

      1. Hey Red Rover, pallets are definitely a great way to save money. For those of us with a lot more time than money, why not take advantage of a free resource that only requires some time to prepare it for use?

        Have you ever gotten the 48″ 2 x 4’s that lumber is stacked on so the forklift can get underneath? I get those free from my local lumber yard in both treated and untreated. I use the treated ones to make beehive stands and outdoor projects, and the untreated ones for everything else. That’s another good resource for making mason jar crates and don’t require any nail removal or planing to make slats. Lumber yards/hardware stores usually have a pile of them somewhere and will probably give some to you free for the asking just like they do with pallets. They’ll also give you the tarps the lumber comes wrapped in.

    2. Hey Chris, thanks for the comments.

      I have a few crates with higher sides so they stack wood on wood instead of wood on jars, but in order to keep these as inexpensive as possible, I went with the shorter versions. They also stack better in the shelves I have in my garden shed, a stack of two fitting nicely between the shelves. This year I’ve stacked four crates high of honey, which is half again as heavy as water, and haven’t had any problems with lids or damage of any kind.

      This can definitely be a good side gig for anyone. Once you get the whole idea of ¾” thick end boards + slats, the options of what you can do with that is only limited by your imagination. I make about 20 different items using the method, mostly my own ideas as certain needs have arisen on my homestead, others just from sitting in my recliner with coffee and cinnamon rolls conjuring up ideas. Once I create something and then start googling the idea, it’s true that “there is no new thing under the sun” and others have thought up the same or similar kinds of ideas. But, in my humble opinion, the things I make look much better and are just as strong or stronger than anything similar I see on the internet that is trying to fill the same need. IMO the slat thickness is perfect for the ¾” end boards so they have a nice look to them, compared to the very clunky-looking things I’ve seen with very wide and unnecessarily thick slats.

      My favorite item I make is a jar carrier for two half-gallon jars. It has two end boards, and a third ¾” thick board in the middle which separates the two jars. The center board is about three inches taller than the jars and has a handle in it similar to the mason jar crates. So it’s a carrying “crate” for two half-gallon jars with a handle in the center. I’ve made some for people with milk goats and have also bartered them for goat’s milk soap. I’m a huge fan of barter.

      I also like the look of 4d nails as compared to staples. For someone not caring about aesthetics and just needing some functional crates, staples of course would be much quicker and less tedious. The look “cheap” however on other items like baskets and countertop items.

      Things like mason jar crates are bulky and non-nestable so they are too expensive to ship. But I think if I (or anyone else) offered them as kits, I could ship all the pieces to customers and they could glue and nail them together, something I don’t have the patience or manual dexterity for. I shipped the pieces for 10 crates to one of my daughters in a box slightly larger than a single crate takes up.

      As you said, this could be a good side gig for lots of people and I hope people take advantage of the idea for their own personal use as well as for barter or making a few extra bucks.

  2. These are beautiful! I’ve been looking for wood boxes and have not been able to find any so your article is very timely. I think this is going to be a future project. The pictures are very helpful to me and make the instructions more clear.

    1. Hey Norman, not quite sure of your question. The slats can be cut from any width of 2 x, the end boards are all 1 x, which are only ¾” wide as you mentioned. I prefer 2 x 6 for the slats because you end up with fewer pieces from the last edge that are too thin to use compared to a 2 x 4. It also worked out to be the most economical on a cost-per-slat basis based on my local lumber prices from a few years ago.

  5. Your pint size boxes reminds me of the old orange and apple boxes that they used to get from the grocey store and that is one of many uses that my folks had for them. My son recently made something similar to what you have. thank you for bringing back a few memories ( I’m in my mid 70’s)

  6. I see many wintertime hours working in the wood shop this season. Between this (new) project, on top of the dozen others I have plus reloading, I might as well black out my entire calendar until March or June, whichever comes first… Thanks for adding to the load. (tongue in cheek)

    1. “Thanks for adding to the load. ”

      Hey Rob, I have that same problem with all the great books Once a Marine recommends. My life is the happiest when I have a long list of projects to do and books to read, and the biggest decision of the day is which one to work on next.

  9. Given that the price of canning jars have doubled and tripled on Amazon, making these crates simply to store the now expensive empty jars is good idea. And a better idea when full. Advertised on Amazon are the highest prices I’ve seen. A case of wide mouth 1 quart Ball jar with lids and seals are advertised at $49.88! Good thang I got my pile.

    These are very nice crates. I get wood for building stuff at a friends wood mill, and get lots of custom dimensional boards for free. I will now start making a pile of suitable wood for my poor man’s version of these fine crates.

    BTW, a good alternative email service that encrypts your mail, and provides a limited service without charge, can be had at protonmail.com

    1. Hey Anonymous, those would definitely be nice to have. They’d do a better job of keeping dust off the jars but I’ve always wondered what kind of plastic they are made of and how durable it is. What scared me away from the most was the price but they’d probably be a good option for folks with more money than my Scotch ancestry will let me part with. The only ones I can see these days are $59.95, but that’s no doubt price gouging like everything else to do with canning nowadays. The mason jar crates I make cost less than a dollar for lumber based on last year’s prices.

    2. Hi Jeri, that’s also an option. I have some which are that way but go with the shorter ones mostly for financial reasons. The taller ones also have the benefit of keeping more dust out of the crates and off the jars.

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